Zeitz MOCAA Wins at International Architecture Awards

The International Architecture Awards is the latest accolade the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art (MOCAA) can add to its burgeoning trophy cabinet. The museum by Heatherwick Studio was one of three winners in the Restoration/Renovation category.

The International Architecture Awards is the oldest, annual public celebration of global architecture organised by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design, together with The European Center for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and Metropolitan Arts Press, Ltd. This year’s awards celebrates over 100 new buildings from 31 nations.

The shortlist was whittled down from over 1000 submission to 380 projects which were then judged by a jury panel of Turkish architects and architecture educators in Istanbul. Museum President of The Chicago Athenaeum, Christian Narkiewicz-Laine, describes the winners as, “what the best, new architecture looks like today.”

Alongside the Zeitz MOCAA in the Restoration/Renovation category are a conversion of former power station boiler houses for the Faculty of Architecture at the İstanbul Bilgi University’s Santral Campus by architects Nevzat Sayin Mimarlik Hizmetleri and a cable car station turned residence in Lucerne, Switzerland by architects Scheitlin Syfrig Architekten.

The International Architecture Awards will culminate in a gala dinner on September 28 in Athens and an exhibition is entitled The City and the World which is scheduled to travel throughout Europe in 2019.

Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCAA) in Cape Town, South Africa by Heatherwick Studio, Image: The Royal Portfolio

The Zeitz MOCAA is also currently on the Beazley Design of the Year 2018 shortlist and was nominated for the RIBA International Awards 2018. The long list of previous awards include Wallpaper* Magazine Design Awards 2018, ArchDaily Refurbishment in Architecture Award 2018, Architizer A+Awards 2018 and IDEAT Future Award 2018.